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Monsanto Buys Crop-Biotech Firms
In Cash, Stock Deals of $4.2 Billion

By

Scott Kilman Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal

Updated May 12, 1998 12:01 a.m. ET

Monsanto Co., in aggressive moves that shift the balance of power in the burgeoning field of crop biotechnology, agreed to pay a total of $4.2 billion in cash and stock for two seed and biotechnology concerns.

The St. Louis-based biotechnology and pharmaceuticals company said it won the three-month-long auction for DeKalb Genetics Corp. by offering $100 a share, or $2.3 billion, for the 60% of the company it doesn't already own....